Drone

Drone

A quadcopter that can be used as a crowd control tool.

Main Stats

Rarity

Exclusive

Explosive Damage

Rage Cost

25

Abilities

Perks

Unlock Requirements

Price

925 (Scientists Pack)

Player Level

Any

Drone is a large quadcopter wrapped with blue wiring carrying a yellow alarm device and a green box.

Overview

Drone is a primarily defensive Support Item. The drone itself is not a solid entity, and only ever appears in the air, disappearing after making an explosion.

Upon reaching its desired location, Drone will lure zombies towards itself in a radius of 120 pixels. Enemies break from their preset path, moving horizontally, vertically, and even going the opposite way just to reach Drone’s center. Once they reach it, zombies will attack it to no effect. After staying still for 3 seconds, it slams into the ground, exploding in a sizable radius.

Energy Sphere and Marauders (other than Crazy) ignore Drone's lure. However, they can still be damaged by the explosion. This also applies to human units in context of PvP game modes.

Scientists' tier-2 power allows them to spawn a special variant of Drone that is unable to lure enemies but explode immediately upon reaching its destination.

Gameplay

Drone is a relatively versatile support item, able to be used offensively and supportively. Its lure ability can draw enemies away from the bus and other units. An ideal scenario has it lure a large horde of zombies away from important units and possibly killing, or heavily damaging them. With proper timing, Drone can also be used to lure a troublesome group of running-type zombies. As the lure groups up those that survive the initial explosion, they are lined up more favorably for ranged units and other support items to follow up.

Although not an ideal situation to begin with, Drone can be particularly helpful during a mission’s final wave. Due to the large amount of expected runner-type enemies, summoning Drone makes for a useful distraction and create some breathing room for units. However, its long prepare time means it is usually only going to have one use during the wave. The efficacy of this may also wane the further into the game the player gets as the final wave becomes more dangerous.

While Drone presents strong use cases, its performance can fall short in certain areas. Against tankier enemies with high heath pools, its short-lasting lure is its only real benefit as its damage output compared to its preparation time and somewhat high rage cost is simply inadequate. Another issue is the high likelihood of friendly fire, which is most apparent when used in conjunction with melee units who can easily be caught in Drone’s blast zone. Given how Drone’s performance can fluctuate depending on the mission’s enemy layout, it is important to weigh its benefits and cons when considering it in a deck over other support item options.

Trivia

• Drone is the first support item to be obtainable as a part of a premium pack.
• Drone's maximum flying speed is 130 pixels.
• In the past, Drone’s lure wouldn’t attract Runner or Witch, only stopping them if they were directly in front of Drone’s area.